By Sourit Sanyal
It has been a week since Tesla CEO Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform Twitter. With the new decisions and drastic changes, Musk made his mark in a week's period to ensure his new presence as the "Chief Twit" before changing to "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator".
He started by announcing a "Content Moderation Council" and was quick to fire the top officials including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and legal head Vijaya Gadde. This was followed by changes in Twitter's policy for verified accounts. Elon Musk announced that users can now apply for the Blue Tick (the sign of verified accounts) by paying $8 per month.
The announcement received harsh criticism with some verified Twitter users saying they are ready to give up on the blue tick while others asked Musk to "take it back".
Also Read:'Take It Back': How Verified Twitter Is Reacting To Elon Musk's $8 Deal
On Friday morning, one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter became #TwitterLayoffs after Bloomberg reported that Musk now plans to offload 3,700 Twitter employees. The numbers are concerning as it constitutes half of Twitter's working force.
According to reports, a letter has been sent out to all Twitter employees telling them that they will know their employment status through emails- if they have their jobs, they will receive it on their professional email ID, if they lose their job they will be informed on their personal email ID.
Are Twitter Employees Losing Their Jobs?
Reuters reported that Twitter has sent an email to its staff. The mail read that employees will find out their employment status via an email on Friday by 9 AM PST (Pacific Time). The report said, "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday."
The Reuters report reflected uncertainty inside the Twitter workspace, where the social media platform did not comment or provide any information to Reuters regarding the employee offload context. They told Reuters that they had to piece it together through media reports, messaging groups and anonymous forums.
Bloomberg reported how affected workers might receive 60 days of severance pay. The Verge quoted Bloomberg's report, mentioning how Musk is also planning to end previous Twitter policies that allowed staff to remotely work from home "forever".
What All Do We Know From Twitter About Twitter So Far?
Many global correspondents have reported on Twitter offloading almost half of their employees while the company is yet to make an official statement regarding the topic. Rolling Stone's political reporter Nikki Ramírez tweeted how the "verification blue tick for all people" to the firing of half the working force by Twitter also comes prior to the Midterm elections.
Washington Post Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin tweeted how CEO Parag Agrawal was also planning mass layoffs with the announcement taking place on April 28. But with the takeover of Elon Musk, the procedure now takes place with a different tactic.
Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier extended her wishes to the Twitter employees who are currently unaware of their future with their employment status hanging by a thread.
Is This Procedure Legal?
Twitter has been sued by the San Francisco federal court after a class-action lawsuit was filed on Thursday over Elon Musk's plan to fire around 3,700 Twitter employees, as reported by Bloomberg. After employees received the notice regarding their employment future via email, they stated how the sudden notice period is in violation of the federal WARN Act of California i.e. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
California employment attorney Lisa Bloom took to Twitter and shared how Elon Musk's decision to fire half of Twitter's employees violate the WARN act.
Musk's sudden decision to fire over 3,500 employees on such a short notice period can result in employers like Twitter paying $500 per day for each violation.
The lawyer said that if convicted under the WARN Act for the mass firing of employees, the affected workers who lost their jobs are entitled to either receive back pay at the employee's final rate or 3 year average of compensation, whichever is higher. Along with this, Twitter would also be responsible for the medical expenses of these employees which were previously covered under an employee benefit plan.
How Are Employees Dealing With This?
The multiple media reports do reflect the tense atmosphere at Twitter with employees staring at job loss, unaware of what the future lies ahead. In such an anxiety-inducing situation, many employees have come forward and taken to social media, sharing their overall experiences.
Many Twitter employees are finding out about their offloading after being unable to access their Twitter email IDs with the company asking everyone to go home, as tweeted by Casey Newton.
A Twitter employee spoke to BBC's James Clayton and shared how their systems got logged out remotely, and how they also cannot access their Slack or email accounts anymore.
Former senior community manager Simon Balmain tweeted that he was removed from Slack while he was remotely logged out of his work laptop.
In a Twitter thread, Casey Newton also stated that the emails received by Twitter employees are unsigned as Elon Musk is yet to take accountability for the mass offloading. Many employees are sending each other the salute emoji in their Slack as a possible farewell, tweeted Casey.
What Has Elon Musk Said On This?
Interestingly, Elon Musk has said nothing so far officially about the mass firings. In fact, the letter that was sent to all the staff was signed as Twitter team and did not mention Musk's name, according to reports.
On October 20, Washington Post had reported that Musk plans to purge 75% of Twitter's workforce, or around 5,600 employees. However, just a week later, Bloomberg reported that Musk has told the employees that he doesn't plan such a big layoff.
And while Musk is still responding to tweets on monetising and paid verification, he hasn't tweeted anything on the layoffs.
